Spotify’s chairman/CEO, Daniel Ek, has been named as the most powerful person in the music industry by the trade magazine Billboard. Ek, 33, tops Billboard’s annual “Power 100”, rising from No 10 last year. He displaces Lucian Grainge, the chairman and CEO of Universal Music Group.

Opening its citation for Ek, Billboard says: “For the first time since Napster decimated music sales, the recorded-music industry is showing signs of growth, and that reversal of fortune is largely due to one man … Daniel Ek.”

It notes that Spotify’s impact in the US “has been nothing short of transformative: in 2016, streaming accounted for 51% of music consumption in the United States, and Spotify dominated the category”.

Ek co-founded Spotify in 2006, launching it in 2008, and rapidly gaining major-label support for the vision of an industry-backed site making a vast catalogue of music available. It has also become a significant driver of music discovery, with the playlists it suggests to users.

Although Spotify is estimated to be worth £8bn, it has still not turned a profit. In 2015, the most recent year for which figures are available, it made a loss of $200m.